Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-20
Rangoon river, and the land was rising q
little to~starhOard

little to starboard.
"Is it true" lisped Charlie Dsnvers,
with the inevitable glass screwed into his
right eye, "that the General has ordered
the artillery to open on the stockades ana
other works with red hot shells? TraVers
says So"
i'Tbat is very like Travers," replied en-
artillery officer, quite gravely; "out the
bursting powder must be in, OF course,
before our shells are heated"
"AW-aw-of course" said Danvers.
It was now well-known on board the
SQUADRON that the blood stepped Theeosw
! intended TO show US that he was nc de-
| generate successor Of that Alomfrea, who
| defeated the Peguen conqueror OF his
country and founded it's dynasty; or
that other King of Burmah, who,
when a missionary asked his permission
i to make converts from Buddhism, he re-
piled: "Convert as many as you can; but
( OF go their heads the moment after" So
the missionary found little trouble in
wanting the caputs Of the converted.
Theebaw proclaimed that he was to un-
furl the Peacock Flag at the head OF his
troops, and Notwithstanding his awful
massacres and mad despotism, he seemed
to be certainly popular with one small
section of his people, and vowed ne
would treat them to the slaughter OF GER
tain British subjects whom he bad in his
hands-detained officers Of the Irawsddy
Flotilla-Whose heads he would hang
upon trees, like so many cocoa-nuts.
| He would arm about 3d. 600 men with
tifles of various kinds, some being ven
cradle fint-locks, warranted, perhaps,
not to 60 off at all, or like some Of those
with which our English government arm
the British troops, as periious to those
who handle them as to the enemy.
By this time he had cut the telegraph
wires between Rsngoon and Mandslsy, az
Minhla. All the troops for the expedi-
| tion were to concentrate at the first
named place snd to advance boldly up the
Irawaddy, striking the initiative blow at
Minhla.
CHAPTER XxxVI -CANTONED AT RANGOoN.
The second battalion OF Lonsdale's reg
iment Prince Albert's Somersetshire
| Light Infantry-had, as stated, been Sta
toned for some time previous at Ran
COON, then in part OF British Burmah ;
thus he and Montressor soon found them
selves warmly welcomed by circle OF
old friends and comrades.
LonsdaIe, proud of his corps-as what
true soldier is not-h1d often looked with
ardour at its colors as they foated out on
the wind, covered with honors wor in
other wars, and not, az Ossian mas 1T,
against 'the sons offeeble men," like the
wretched Burmese of Theebaw; and
when the embroidered silk, with the
Sphinx and Mural Crown, was OF the old
days; when, on going into action, the
first orders were:
"Gentlemen! Uncase the colours. Elk.
anime your fiints ard printing!"
$40 not the old colours of regiment"
asks writer, "riddlsd with shot, latter
ed and stained out OF all their early
beauty, bring TO US 6 sigh Of loving
tribute to the glories so present to the
spirit-so little discernible now?"
And colors they were, still of the OLD
day, of long service and veteran soldiers
not CT the weedV boys, that die like flies
when hardships come-days of the "Oid
Red Rag" that tells of Britain's glory,
and when the vile kloki, that suggests
only the garb of a convict, was unknown.
And now for bit OF unknown history.
This Somersetshire regiment, about
which we may hsve something to write,
was raised by Theophilus, seventh Ear
of Huntingdon, in the troublesome year
1855, for King James-the same peer
whose house, as s noted loyalist, was
searched by the Willismites in 1892, for
papers which he had burned; but in
whose stables were found horses enough
to mount a squadron of cavalry, and who
had been succeeded in the memorable
year of the revolution by his son Ferdi-
nand1 Hastings. Then came the Earl Of
BanYmon, as colonel in the truce of the
Union; Stanhope Cotton in the year of
Sherifmsir; Harry Pulteney in the days
OF Dettingen and Culloden; and to these
old memories it added more recent glories
won in every quarter Of the globe; and it
was perhaps the last corps in Her Msj
esty's service to use the old fint-lock
musket, with which it's soldiers, under
the gallsnt Sir Robert Sale, the veteran
of Mall0velly, fought their way through
the Khyber Passes down to Iclsllabsd in
IS41-Sale, the same splendid soldier,
who, in the first Burmese war, had aided
the stormlng of the great bell-shsped
Dagon Pagods at Rargoon.
To Montague Lonsdsle, the latter round
edifce was an object of wonderful inter
est, when he saw it towering skywsrd to
the height of $50 feet, and glitteripg in
the sun-the largest "relicshrine," as It's
name impsrts, in all Indo China, and from
its site, on the last spur of the Pogo
Yoma range, visible for vast distance
around, whittier the clarg Of its mighty
bell, fourteen feet in height, can be sent,
From its summit he could see, as in a
mass at his feet, groves of banyau and
cocoa-nut trees, large open buildings,
containing monstrous images of Guadsma,
some in sitting, some in sleeping posi-
lions, surrounded by others of priests
and attendants in the act of worship;
others of elephants, lions, angels and
demons, and of objects altogether indie
scribable; elsewhere, swamps, rice flats,
low bushes; and away to the north, dense
Jungle, WI h the river flowing between,
500 yards In breadth and deep enough for
laden ships of 1900 tons.
Such was the new and strsnge locality
in which Lonsdale now found himself,
with his comrades of the old Somerset
shire, and elaborate descriptions of which
he sent in more than one long letter to
Melanie.
More than once during the brief period
of insction at Rangoon he had tormenting
dreams of her, born, doubtless, Of his
waking thoughts-at least he could but
infer go; dreams OF Melsnie at their old
trysting place, under the great trees be-
side the shining river on which the water
lilies foated. She WAS not there with
himself, he thought, but with old Sir
Brisco; and once-he never forgot thst
dresm-he seemed to see SsoKencross
church in the background, old, grey, and
half hidden among the foliage; while